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WATCH: Former Northampton County Supervisor speaks on appointed vs. elected school boards | 2:31

Willie C. Randall, former chairman of the Northampton County Board of Supervisors and candidate for the House of Delegates, speaks on the merits of appointed school boards during a public forum in Accomac, Virginia on Monday, Oct. 30, 2017.
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Pony Penning begins with southern and northern roundups on Assateague, the swim to Chincoteague on July 26 followed by the auction on July 27 and capped with the swim back.
Wochit/Produced by Kamlesh Desai

A town hall meeting to discuss broadband internet needs on Virginia's Eastern Shore was held in Melfa, Virginia on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. A second meeting was held in Eastville, Virginia on Wednesday.
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The 18th annual Juneteenth Festival on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for the first time included a second day, which featured gospel music in Exmore, Virginia's town park. The festival was held Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18, 2017.
Carol Vaughn video

The President of the United States took time out of his schedule Monday afternoon to place a telephone call to Tangier Island Mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge, after viewing a CNN report about the island that aired last week.
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The Rev. Kirk Mariner played a benefit for Habitat for Humanity at Cokesbury Church in Onancock, Va. on April 1, 2016. The performance included original pieces composed by Mariner. Mariner died Thursday, June 8, 2017 after a long illness.
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In New Jersey and Virginia, two states holding legislative elections this year, a wave of female first-time candidates say they were spurred into action by the January women's march, and dismay over the election results. (June 5)
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Democratic candidate for Virginia’s governor Ralph Northam pauses for a photo with Verne Wood, of Machipongo, during the Democratic candidate meet and greet at Accomack County Airport, in Melfa,(Photo: CLARA VAUGHN PHOTO)Buy Photo

Democratic candidates for Virginia’s governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general denounced the recent white nationalist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville during a meet-and-greet at Accomack County Airport in Melfa on Sunday afternoon.

More than 50 supporters came to the event where gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, contender for lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax and incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring delivered stump speeches and fielded questions from the crowd.

“It shouldn’t matter the color of one’s skin, it shouldn’t matter their sexual orientation, it shouldn’t matter the country that they come from or the religions that they practice,” Northam said. “We are inclusive in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

“The forces and the ideology of hatred, racism and bigotry that we saw in Charlottesville last Saturday have no home anywhere in our great Commonwealth,” Herring said.

Long before the Charlottesville rally, Virginia’s gubernatorial race was set to be a litmus test for national politics and what to expect in the 2018 midterm elections.

With the Nov. 7 election looming large, Northam held a small, 6-point lead over Republican candidate for governor Ed Gillespie, according to Quinnipac University poll released less than two weeks ago.

An Eastern Shore native, Northam graduated from Virginia Military Institute, and then from Eastern Virginia Medical School, before serving eight years of active duty in the U.S. Army treating injured soldiers. He’s served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor since 2013.

Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, addresses the crowd during the meet and greet at Accomack County Airport in Melfa,(Photo: CLARA VAUGHN PHOTO)

Fairfax will face off against Republican Sen.Jill Vogel in the lieutenant governor’s race, and former federal prosecutor and Republican John Adams challenges Herring for his seat as Virginia Attorney General in the election.

Race was not the only issue the candidates addressed in the hour-long forum.

Unemployment in Virginia is at its lowest rate in years and more than 200,000 jobs have come to the state since 2014, but Northam said those gains are not equal across Virginia.

“Our unemployment rate is at 3.7 (percent). I can guarantee you it is not 3.7 here on the Eastern Shore,” he said.

To combat that, he proposed “bringing skills to jobs” in what many call the “new collar” sector.

“The key … is understanding what the jobs of the 21st century are, and those are different from when I was growing up,” Northam said. “They’re different… from farming and forestry and working on the water.”

Many of new collar jobs are in STEAM-related areas — science, technology, engineering, the arts and math — he said.

One resident expressed concerns about the “brain drain” of local talent to urban areas and asked how Northam plans to bring jobs to the Eastern Shore.

His “G3” program, which stands for ‘get skilled, get a job and give back,’ aims to help Virginians get the training they need for jobs in areas from cybersecurity to agriculture through apprenticeships and high school and community college training.

By providing workers with skills for specific fields, new industries such as solar panel companies can thrive on the Eastern Shore, Northam said.

“One of the most important things is, can we train their future workforce? And that’s what we’ve got to focus on, because you can’t just drop in a business without the ability to support that business,” he said.

Fairfax echoed his sentiment, citing the need for more education from early childhood to training for “middle-skill” jobs that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year college degree.

Raised by a single mother at his grandparents’ house in Washington, D.C., he cited the “spiritual wealth” he gained from his family and the community that supported him and his three siblings.

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Attorney General Mark Herring, who is running for reelection, meets supporters during the Democratic candidate meet and greet at Accomack County Airport in Melfa on Sunday.(Photo: CLARA VAUGHN PHOTO)

Asked in what ways that background shaped his goals as lieutenant governor, Fairfax said: “There are a few very specific things. One… (is) the power of education.”

“Part of the reason that we have been able to travel that road that we have to achieve some of the success in life that we have is because people gave us access to a high-quality education,” he said.

“Everyone, no matter how much money you have … should get the exact same shot at that high-quality education,” he added.

As a former federal prosecutor, Fairfax also worked at the Major Crimes and Narcotics Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he strived to “get our young people out of a broken criminal justice system they don’t need to be involved” in.

Asked about ways to reform Virginia’s education system to change this school-to-prison pipeline — the name for the national trend in which more students have contact with the criminal justice system due to practices in schools — Herring said: “It really shapes their expectations for their own lives in the future.”

He advocated keeping the majority of discipline within the schools, rather than transferring it to the criminal justice system.

“There are too many instances of school misconduct that are being referred to the legal system when the discipline can better be handled within the school,” he said.

Herring suggested working with the state’s board of education and local school boards to enact policies that help local schools handle student violations in-house.

The Virginia RULES program also aims to help middle and high school students understand state-specific laws so they can make sound decisions and avoid breaking laws, he said.

All three candidates also touted their support for affordable health care, which 36 percent of voters listed as one of their top issues in a Quinnipac poll.

“Virginians want to know that they and their families have access to affordable and quality healthcare,” said Northam in support of the Affordable Care Art

“No individual, no family, should be one medical illness away from financial demise,” he said.

The Accomack and Northamptom County Democratic Committees organized the meet and greet event.

“It’s important that the candidates come to the Eastern Shore so that we can hear them (talk) firsthand about their platforms and what they’re hoping to do for the citizens of the Commonwealth,” said Debra Wharton, chair of the Accomack County committee.

Machipongo resident Verne Wood came to the event “to actually meet the candidates and hear them,” she said.

“I know the issues,” including education and healthcare, she said. “I want to hear what other people have to say.”